Hello. Anyway, in my high school it's been home coming week and I'm going to the dance tonight. I was just wondering if schools in Japan had some sort of equivalent to home coming or if their "home coming" celebrations are those cultural festivals instead.
Also, I was wondering if there were any such things as proms and other various dances in Japanese high schools.
Thanks for reading!

I love your straight forward answer, Mike.
Dude, my home coming was awesome. I have the bragging rites because I danced with this really cute senior multiple times.
But there are no dances, none at all? That sucks.

My hasty and probably wrong guess would be that dances are too focused on individuals to really fit within Japanese school society -- most of the functions they have are still focused on the kumi within each grade rather than individual achievements. The structure of the extracurricular activities system is also totally different in the Japanese school system, and the idea of people going to watch a school sports team play a game does not really exist (nor does the idea of "school spirit"; the focus is much more on the kumi than the school as a whole).

Usually the big autumn event is the 運動会 ("sports festival" is how it's usually translated)

Last edited by Yudan Taiteki on Sun 09.30.2007 11:04 am, edited 1 time in total.

Yudan Taiteki wrote:...and the idea of people going to watch a school sports team play a game does not really exist (nor does the idea of "school spirit"; the focus is much more on the kumi than the school as a whole)

Are you sure you'd say this? Watching the summer high school baseball tournament, for example, with hundreds of students in the stands all dressed in school colors and ouendan (cheer squads) leading everyone in cheers, fight songs and school songs (that all the students seem to actually know the words to, no less!), I always got the impression that Japanese schools have much more 'school spirit' than I ever remember seeing back in the US.

Yudan Taiteki wrote:...(nor does the idea of "school spirit"; the focus is much more on the kumi than the school as a whole).

I think that it's terrible that schools in Japan don't have "school spirit"!! Anyway, I'd like to ask as you stated above:What is kumi?

Unlike in American high schools, Japanese high school students don't choose their classes. Each grade level will have a number of groups of students: kumi. The students take all their classes together in the kumi. They stay in one classroom and the teachers of various subjects come to the class.

What this does is create a very strong bond among the students in their respective kumi. So, to expand on Chris's point, it's not that Japanese schools don't have "school spirit", but rather that the spirit is focused on the kumi, rather than the school as a whole.

Edit: I don't know that I would use the summer high school baseball tournament as a barometer of school spirit. It's such a big event it even draws in people entirely unaffiliated with the schools involved. So of course it's a big deal for the students of the schools involved.

Last edited by Shirasagi on Tue 10.02.2007 6:15 am, edited 1 time in total.

It may be going too far to say that Japan has no concept of school spirit at all, but I still think that it's much more common for the emphasis to be on the kumi than on the school as a whole.

Adding to Josh's description of kumi, the students are encouraged (often implicitly, but sometimes explicitly as well) to associate primarily with people in their own kumi, even outside of school, and there are a lot of events that pit the kumi of the grades vs. each other -- much more than there are events pitting schools vs. other schools.

Remember Hogwarts? Aside from the Triwizard Tournament in book 4, the emphasis was always much more on the houses competing with each other than it was Hogwarts. vs other schools. There was a lot more pride in being a Gryffindor or a Slytherin than there was being a Hogwarts student.

I think that it's terrible that schools in Japan don't have "school spirit"!!

From what I remember of the high school students I knew, there is a difference in school spirit from the US and Japan. But that alone isn't enough to say there is no school spirit in Japan. Competitions are fierce and withing those competitions the spirits of the students are focused on the honor of the school, the honor of their team and the honor of competition.

What school in the US has marching bands in elementary school that play for the school undokai's?

as for why is it terrible not to have school spirit? my own opinion is that without commitment to a school, an organization, fraternity etc, without that spirit and dedication what is there? just showing up and going through the motions with nothing to be motivated about is akin to eating oatmeal dry. it can be done but it's so stupid that only horses do it.